What made you leave your last/past livery yard?

Left first yard because the YO's daughter was a complete mental, and once I stopped being useful to her (she got her own trailer) she did everything to pee me off. The last straw was plastic bags that I KNEW I had put in the bin appearing in his stable. She gave me two days notice to leave after I dared to complain about her treatment of my horse:mad:

Yard two because the YO turned out to be completely incompetent and actually dangerous. My poor horse suffered there - he was on full livery as it was 36 miles from home, and luckily another livery called me to say he hadn't been fed for a week, out 24/7 in a field with no shelter in January:eek: Cue me zooming across with bales of haylage, to find a pretty much skeletal horse. She also left him in the stable in his for 4 hours the first full morning he was there - she was too scared to turn out a 14.2:mad: Why she offered any sort of livery I do not know, it is the most shocking yard I have ever seen. We moved three days later. Her own horses were in a shocking condition as well, and all her liveries moved or she kicked them off not long after I left. It was only ever temporary anyway, and she was supposed to be my friend. Some friend :(

Yard now is FAB, horse and I are very happy and I will never move unless I leave the area or they close!!
 
Only moved because I have, or cos free livery came with the job, with two exceptions. I was moving & new yards stables got wrecked days before, old box already let so moved to a less than ideal yard for a month or so while new yard sorted. New the owner was a numpty but thought I could hack it, lasted a matter of days, had to leave before I killed her! Luckily I knew the owners of where I was meant to move who knew yo was a moron & they squeezed us in, my mare went out with the mares & foals. Turned out handy as one mare died prior to weaning, mine became a foster mum till foal 6months.
Wasn't happy at last yard as new owners took over, manager had his hands tied. Had name down for stable at current yard & one came up before I was forced to look elsewhere.
 
Left my last yard as it was gradually turning from a dedicated Full Livery yard to DIY. You couldn't get in the school as there were so many DIYers there. Last straw was when they decided to half my field to accomodate said DIY's.
(Got nothing against DIYers by the way - been there, done that - but it just meant that there were too many people after what had been a nice quiet yard)

Yard before that - left due to an idiotic YO. We rented the entire yard so we could do our own thing only for him to tell us which fields to use, how to manage our horses, when to worm our horses because he'd 'read it on the internet'. Last straw was when he wanted us move the horses onto a steep field with no water facilities with not notice late on a Sunday evening. He was very surprised when we handed our notice in the next day and was very upset to be losing the £700 a month rent we were paying him.

Yard Prior to that - left due to an absolute psycho who started to cause trouble on the yard. It all got a bit nasty so we left.

Have to say that I have struck gold though with my current yard. Fantastic place, YO is brilliant and she understand that horses like nice hay and straw and not any old crap.
 
Arizahn said:
We are never happy, are we?:o
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I'm perfectly happy, but the owner of my place died a week ago exactly, so that's the reason I'll be leaving. I had to leave the same place 5 years ago, almost, when she thought she'd have to sell up after her sister died (pushy, obnoxious, money-grabbing relatives), but thankfully got to move back on after three months of livery (not hell, but simply wasn't me and my ponies HATED it there). :(
 
There were a few reasons.

Despite the lovely YO'S and YO's sharer. Ruby was turned out most of the time alone, YO didn't like her Horses out in the rain so on the wet days hers would stay in. Although Ruby was ok by herself I felt very guilty. Also didn't have too much grazing and feeding hay in the fields became too expensive. The hacking wasn't great either.

New yard, acres and acres of land and all year turnout. No hay needed because there is alot of grass. She has constant companions as the majority of Horses go out what ever the weather. Fantastic hacking.

I do miss my YO though :( we have kept in touch though.
 
OMG some of you have had some right horror stories!

We moved my daughter's mare from the yard (more of a farm) I share with a friend to a small yard run by another friend of mine because it had a school and my daughter was struggling with the mare and needed a bit more in the way of instruction and support.

After about a year we moved from there because she had very definite ideas about horse care, we all got a bit fed up with one another, the grazing wasn't great and and the hacking mostly on roads. At the time the atmosphere was really unpleasant, lots of cold shoulders and rolling of eyes, which helped us to make our minds up. After we left it was good to be just friends again.

I remember when we decided to move my friend said we'd never last 5 mins at a livery yard, they were so bitchy and horrible, etc. There have been some uncomfortable moments but on the whole it has been a great place for our horses and us to be and I can't complain, though it is useful to have the farm as a bolthole and I wouldn't want to lose it.

When the day comes that I get my own horse I think I would probably keep it on the farm, though I do love the hacking at the livery yard!
 
I left the last yard due to nutty yard owner. I think Im attracted to nutty yard owners. I cant believe how many nutty yard owners there are. Its not just me then.
 
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I think i am in the minority here, I have had a horse for 11 years now,(Benson for 9 1/2 and Donovan for 1 1/12) and have never moved yards!
 
Last yard was built without planning permission so we had to leave.
Before that Nadia was in a field just behind my flat but then I moved 20 miles away and didn't want her that far away.
 
It was our first horse and we knew very little so he went to a "friends" yard.
Out the trailer the stupid friend turned him out with 2 other horses (who we then found out were a bit of a nightmare anyway) - 10 mins later our (1st) new horse was brought in Lame, with 2 massive kick marks and needing the Vet.

He went there on Full livery inc riding (so my OH just could just have lessons on him at weekends) and despite being charged over £500 pm he was ridden a grand total of 5 times in 3 months and the tack was cleaned once.
Beds were always disgusting

He was left out 24/7 over the summer and still charged for everything (inc extra bedding) and for 2 days he had no water in his field. poor guy was not well for a few days afterwards

as we were new owners we thought this is normal behaviour - oh how we learned quickly

And to top it off she was a proper mental bit*h who made being there very uncomfortable with her moods and nasty comments. (she is definately not right in the head)

As a final nail in the coffin, dispite giving 3 weeks notice of leaving they locked the gates of the yard and demanded another month livery or our horse was not going anywhere (had a horse transport company sitting there witnessing this). I called the police for demanding money with menaces.

there is lots more to this story but after that i'm amazed we still have horses

We decided enough was enough and found a fabulous event yard we've been at for years now.

I still have some tiny niggles where we are but these are always dealt with professionally and our horses are in the condition of their lives.
 
Left first yard because YO didn't feed the horses for nearly 24 hours as she had nothing to feed them due to financial troubles. (Didn't know at the time). She kept telling us she was expecting delivery of hay/straw any time. I ended up buyinh some bales of hay and another livery bought some hard feed and we fed all 8 horses including hers. I was then verbally abused for feeding MY horses. It was not allowed!!!!! WTF :mad:
Needless to say I was furious and put the phone down on her only to have her come to front door late at night. Didn't answer door as she would have ended up on her back and me in jail. :mad:
Found a letter in letterbox at 5am next morning (couldn't sleep was so angry) telling me to be off the yard by 10am - so I was!
Luckily I had been on a waiting list for another yard 300 metres away and they took me in as an emergency.

Was with this yard for 5 years till this YO got the chance to hire the previous yard (original owner had to sell up) and we could move back for more turnout.
There until April this year when owner of premises (not at all horsey) decided he wanted to keep cows instead of horses. We're talking about a purpose built livery yard with beautiful fields, brick built stables with running water and electricity and an 60m X 40m arena. Said yard is still empty, arena is overgrown and......no cows in the field. Breaks my heart having to pass it every day.:(

Now on a lovely yard with people of like mind but yard is a bit scruffy. Not bothered though as horses are happy and we can come and go when we please and horses are out at least 12hours a day. No arena but have use of one 10mins hack away.
 
1st yard we were at I loved the location, 3 miles from my house and great hacking. But we were there about 3 years and over that time nothing went back into the yard, the schools started to become unusable (flood lights falling down into the puddle filled school while still working! Electric shock waiting to happen!) the fence posts were rotting and not being replaced. Countless times horses escaped into other fields or out of them altogether because of the fencing. So we moved as you saw new washing machines / sofas etc. going into the YO house but no money put back into the yard.

So moved to 2nd yard, bit more of a competition yard, fantastic facilites. Downside was lack of hacking. ALOT more expensive a month and futhur from my house to travel. So paying extra in livery and petrol. We were there for 3 years also, but my old boy was slowing down arthritis etc... I was paying for facilities I was no longer using and all my boy needed was hacking but there was no where interesting to hack. The yard was very clicky also and I never really felt comfortable there. Plus I was also looking at getting a second horse to continue riding and there was no way i could afford to keep them both at this yard.

so we moved again... back to the 1st yard. This time it had been taken over by other people. All the fencing had been re-done. The main school had been re-fenced and re-surfaced (although not great, 10000x more usuable!) The 2nd school has since also been re-fenced and the surface improved. And i got my glorious hacking back i missed sooooo much :D It still has its faults but what yard doesn't at least you can now see your money going back into the place and improvements are being made each month. Plus i have now got my 2nd horsey which this yard cost wise allows me to have :)
 
Only been on one other yard.

First yard had good facilities and I was happy there but they did restrict turnout in winter which too much for my mare, and she was also in a small group and very clingy. I only did 1 year there (1 winter) and vowed we'd move before we had to do another.

I took my time deciding where to go though and moved to yard in next village, much more basic but 24/7 365 herd turnout allowed. I do miss the nice school we used to have sometimes but the hacking is better and pony and I much happier.
 
I've moved four times in the last year :eek:

Moved the first time because of repeated break-ins by the local brats who thought it was OK to fling our stuff into the fields and throw stones at the stables. Shame really, nice little yard and brilliant hacking.

Moved to a big local yard in a hurry and found neither me or my mare are suited to big yards, both unhappy and the hacking was poor.

Moved to grass livery at a different yard on the same farm as the orgininal yard - hacking even better, both of us very happy. Got given four days notice to quit because the landowner threatened the tenant farmer wth lease termination becuase he didn't have permission to have horses on that part of the farm.

Moved to a temporary and very remote field on another part of the farm whilst we found somewhere else. Suspect horses and our stuff interfered with by lampers, gate removed at the hinges, feed bins rifled through and horses injured after a night of mad running about.

Moved two weeks ago to a yard which is being restored, it's expensive, the hacking isn't great and it's very tatty at the moment but the horses have settled, the owners own the land and are nice sane people with their own horses and we have sole use of the yard. Plus they have a horse feed business on site which is mighty handy.
 
Moved from one yard because a price hike didn't really make sense (particularly because they wanted to charge £3 per net at a time when a large bale of hay cost £25ish) so I went to a place that was closer to home and turned out to have better facilities and cheaper too. Only moved there because over time the area became very built up and the hacking started getting scary. Also, with the addition of more stables meant more liveries which meant it got more difficult to get to use the school (particularly if you were dressage schooling your horse and everyone was standing in the middle waving carrot sticks ;) )
 
As a first time buyer, I didn't realise that many livery yards were only known through word of mouth and, although I tried to do my research, I was finding it very hard to find anything - until someone at the riding school I was using offered me grass livery on her partner's farm.

I was there for 18 months with poor grazing, barbed wire fencing, no electricity and nowhere to school except for the generosity of the kind hearted person just up the road who was happy for me to use her arena.

However, what really forced the move was the sullen, surly non-communicative nature of the young "yo" meaning that I hated being on the farm.

My current yard has its downfalls and there have been some strange people on it over the years but, on the whole, I like my fellow liveries and my horse is very happy.
 
I left my last Yard due to an interfering Yard Owner who was making life very difficult for the lady that run the full livery part (of which I was part). Very long, tedious story.

Before that I left a Yard on full livery because of restricted turnout, as I had an arthritic mare, as well as distance from home

Before that, on DIY, due to bitchiness, arguments, backstabbing and an unprofessional YO who joined in with it all.
 
I left my last yard due to the fact that they redone there arena and decided on top of the livery that we were already paying which wasn't cheap we would have to pay to use the arena each time and we weren't allowd to jump or lunge in there despite there been no lunge pen and only a very rutted or boggy jump paddock. And also that we had to use one instructor who wasn't very good. It could have worked out very expensive for me as daughter rides 6 days a week and in the winter we had to put a £1 in the lights too!!!
Am now at a yard where I have 3 arenas to choose from and we can lunge in 2 and jump in all of them with the price included in the livery !!
 
First yard- (had been stabled there for 8 years) the owner turned into a nasty nutcase, he also left metal and wire in the field sadly causing one horse to be PTS, then refused to remove it.

Second yard - it was a little too expensive and I wanted more turnout (amazing yard though)

Third yard- It was located through woods and was absolutely petrifying to walk too, was also very dangerous as main road was a 10/15 minute away by foot (sadly I don't drive) ...stupidly I never thought it would be a problem as before I moved I agreed to jump in a friends car after work, she moved jobs a few months after I moved so our timings were never the same again. Most people had left by the time I got there of an evening too, was constantly clock watching before night fell.
 
TelH said:
I left my last livery yard because I moved house to a place with its own land+stables :)
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Oh No you poor old thing! What an awful reason to have to leave ;-P Muchly jealous!

Reasons for leaving my first one was that only straw sold by them was allowed to be used and my horse had a major dust allergy- Other than that i liked it there.

Second one i moved house

Third The constant arguements and bitching combined with no turnout just all got a bit too much!
 
I've moved due to re locating but when I've been moving for the sake of moving ;) the reasons were: needing more facilities, horse got stabbed in his field and nutty yo/liveries!
 
The first place I was at was just a field. My boy was having a rest for a few months, the people were lovely, but it was an hours drive away and when I wanted to start riding him, there werent any facilities.
The second place was lovely to start with, but then some bitchy livery's came, got very friendly with the YO, ( started working for her a couple of days a week ), they used to be rude to me every chance, moan about me to the YO, rang my feed merchant and pretended to be the YO and kicked up such a fuss about 6 bales of hay they had delivered for me, that they never wanted to deliver again, and tried to get my tb to spook every time I rode or lunged. ( Then told me that if I schooled him correctly with parelli methods, he wouldn't be so bad mannered...)
Strangely enough, none of this was enough to make me move, I just used to ignor them, but then my boy ( very good doer ) started loosing weight and I found out that on the days she worked she wasn't feeding him or checking his water.
The next day I found somewhere new and he was moved 2 days later.
So far so good in the new place.
Kx
 
Lack of value for money for me.

The facilities were lovely, but due to a change of management at work, I wasn't getting the opportunities to use them. When I did get to the yard, the YO would be teaching so I couldn't use the school.
No turnout from November to May. This was not too bad when I could access the school, but it just wasn't working for me anymore.

Oh, and the fact that somebody was using my clean dry towels, washing their pony and then putting the towels back in my kit box, causing mould on my hat, my leather work, my gloves......... This happened twice and really was the final straw.

Where I am now has its draw backs, but it also has its plus's.
 
Up until recently I have only moved yards because of my husbands army postings moving them around Germany and to and from UK.

The last move well did not move the horses we moved house!! the commute 18 miles to and from twice daily was telling on my time, enjoyment, and car. This time this was my move! Now only 1.8 miles from the horses and gained at least 2 hours a day. Happier all round.
 
Left the first yard because of lack of menage and horse needed working due to recovery from injury. Left the 2nd yard because we had no turnout in the winter even though we were told it was all year round turnout. Also because my sister got a job as YM on another yard so we moved to there for convenience :)
 
I left my first yard because my horse suffered an injury which needed long term rest which meant I could no longer use the amazing facilities. The livery was too expensive for turnout only which was all we needed. I was sorry to leave as the people were great and it was nice to have so many people to hack with...

The next yard I left because I bought a house with land and stables :) where I've happily kept my horses for 16 years :)
 
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